Zelensky’s top advisor blames US for Ukraine conflict

Mikhail Podoliak wants NATO membership for Ukraine and total victory over Russia

Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky’s top adviser, Mikhail Podoliak, praised a ‘Ukrainian victory’ resolution proposed by US lawmakers on Wednesday. Washington, he said, seeks to make amends for a 'historical mistake' by admitting Kiev into NATO and endorsing its war aims.

“The House of Representatives’ resolution is unequivocal: The United States, unfortunately, along with other Western countries, encouraged Ukraine to give up nuclear and other weapons to ensure security and stability in the region under safeguards. This was a wrong policy that was misinterpreted by the aggressor and led to a major war in Europe,” Podoliak tweeted.

Kiev has insisted for years that the US was obligated to protect it from Moscow because Ukraine agreed to return atomic weapons to Moscow under in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, in exchange for guarantees of territorial integrity. Former US President Bill Clinton offered an “apology” for that in an interview with the Irish broadcaster RTE earlier this month.

Moscow has maintained that the arsenal wasn’t Ukraine’s to begin with, but belonged to the Soviet Union, of which Russia was recognized as the sole heir. Russia has also pointed to Zelensky’s statements about re-acquiring nuclear weapons, made in January 2022, as justification for its current military operation.

Only the “return of the occupied territories back to Ukraine, bringing war criminals to justice, and the country's full membership in NATO,” would help bring security back to Europe, he added.

Podoliak's comments came in response to a resolution proposed by US representatives Joe Wilson and Steve Cohen, a South Carolina Republican and a Tennessee Democrat. Though its text has not been made public, the Ukrainian government appears to be familiar with its contents. Kiev’s ambassador in Washington, Oksana Markarova, tweeted on Tuesday that it “includes important elements” of Zelensky’s “peace formula.”

From what anonymous congressional staffers told Yahoo News, the resolution practically echoes Zelensky’s talking points, declaring the US policy to be restoring Ukraine’s 1991 borders and having Russia pay reparations and for its leadership to be put on trial for war crimes.

“Perhaps the most important feature of Western civilizational culture is the ability to analyze past experience and acknowledge mistakes,” Podoliak told Yahoo when reached for comment about the resolution on Tuesday. This was presumably a reference to the resolution’s claim that the US had wrongly pressured Ukraine to give up nuclear weapons.

The US continues to claim it is not a participant in the conflict, but insists that Russia “must lose” and has provided more than $100 billion in financial and military aid to Kiev over the past year.

The Wilson-Cohen resolution will need to be approved by the House Foreign Affairs Committee before getting a vote before the full chamber. A companion resolution was introduced in the Senate on Tuesday evening, sponsored by Democrats Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, and South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham.

https://www.rt.com/russia/575391-ukraine-congress-resolution-victory/

>>18757864

Former Apple Employee Sentenced To Prison For Conspiracy To Defraud Apple And Tax Crimes

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/former-apple-employee-sentenced-prison-conspiracy-defraud-apple-and-tax-crimes

Poland seizes Russian embassy and trade mission funds

Moscow’s envoy has called the move a “flagrant violation” of the Vienna Convention

All the money in the accounts of the Russian embassy and trade office in Warsaw has been seized by the Polish prosecutor’s office, Ambassador Sergey Andreyev revealed on Wednesday.

“We received a notification from the prosecutor’s office that the funds from the Santander Bank accounts of the embassy and the trade representation were transferred to the accounts of the prosecutor’s office,” Andreyev told RIA Novosti.

Santander Bank then informed the embassy that it had “ceased cooperation” with the Russian government and closed the accounts, Andreyev added. There were “significant amounts” of both US dollars and Polish zlotys in both accounts, according to the diplomat.

Andreyev called the incident “a flagrant violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” the 1961 treaty governing the rights and responsibilities of diplomats.

The Polish authorities had previously frozen the embassy account, citing suspicions that it might be involved in “money laundering or terrorism.” When this prevented the embassy from paying the lease on a recreational facility near Warsaw, the Polish authorities terminated the lease and seized the property in November 2022.

Another property, a residence on 100 Sobieski Street, was seized last spring. Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski said at the time it should be handed to refugees from Ukraine. The Polish foreign ministry said the building was “illegally owned” by the embassy as it was not being used for diplomatic or consular purposes. The embassy’s explanation, that the building was unfit for occupancy as it needed repairs, was ignored.

Poland has also sought to confiscate the embassy-operated school in Warsaw, citing the same pretext. The Russian Foreign Ministry has protested both seizures as a flagrant violation of international law.

Many EU and NATO countries have expelled dozens of Russian diplomats after the Ukraine conflict escalated in February 2022, but most did not go so far as to sever relations with Moscow. The US and its allies have insisted they are not actually involved in the conflict, even while they sent Kiev over $100 billion worth of weapons and financial aid.

https://www.rt.com/news/575396-poland-russian-embassy-accounts/

HAALAND BREAKS THE RECORD | 33 Premier League goals in a single season

https://youtu.be/VZ-JGHs3Nt4

>>18757911

Broke - sent all their money to Ukraine

Turkish officials reject rumors on President Erdoğan's condition

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will attend the first fuel delivery for Akkuyu Nuclear Plant virtually, according to a statement by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), while the Communications Directorate and others rejected claims that he was in a serious medical condition.

Having already canceled Wednesday's meetings, Erdoğan has now also canceled his program for Thursday, AK Party Deputy Chair Erkan Kandemir said.

Kandemir said Erdoğan would attend a ceremony at the Akkuyu nuclear power plant in the southern Mersin province via video link on Thursday.

"Our Mersin rally is also planned to be held on a future date," he posted on Twitter.

Vice President Fuat Oktay rejected claims that the president's health condition was serious.

"The president's state of health is really good. We are constantly in touch with him, Oktay said, adding that Erdoğan will continue to carry out duties.

The Presidential Communications Directorate also rejected claims that the president had a heart attack.

A statement posted by the directorate's branch to counter disinformation noted that claims made by some accounts on social media outlets that the president had a heart attack and was hospitalized are not true.

The statement continued by saying that Erdoğan would attend the Akkuyu ceremony on Thursday.

Communications Director Fahrettin Altun also rejected claims in a tweet he posted on Wednesday.

https://www.dailysabah.com/politics/elections/turkish-officials-reject-rumors-on-president-erdogans-condition

Whistleblower Reveals Law Enforcement Isn’t Vetting Sponsors For Child Migrants

Health and Human Services (HHS) whistleblower Tara Lee Rodas spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation exclusively, alleging that the U.S. government doesn’t involve law enforcement in vetting sponsors of migrant children.

Amid a surge in illegal migration at the southern border, Rodas made the decision to volunteer with HHS to help reunite children with their families, which she soon found to be unrelated and criminal sponsors in some cases, she said.

“It’s been a very hard journey, a very hard journey. But I was looking at the faces of the children. I’ve heard young girls screaming for their mom in home country. I watched children have panic attacks. Children had to be put on suicide watch. They don’t know where they’re going. This is just unacceptable,” Rodas told the DCNF.

A whistleblower set to testify before a House subcommittee Wednesday revealed that law enforcement is not involved in vetting sponsors of migrant children in an exclusive interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Health and Human Services (HHS) whistleblower Tara Lee Rodas conveyed concern about releasing children to unvetted sponsors. She said the employees at the Emergency Intake Site did not have access to critical vetting tools such as National Crime Information Center, a tool used for decades by law enforcement to determine the criminal history of an individual.

“Because there’s no way to know the criminal history of someone who has no legal presence without proper vetting. HHS is not a law enforcement organization. I mean, how are we going to know if these are trustworthy people? We must have proper vetting and that’s the only way. It has to be law enforcement. The contractors, they’re just regular people, the case managers, they don’t have a law enforcement background. They can’t pull up a history they can’t know if someone is a registered sex offender or not. Only law enforcement will know that,” Rodas said.

Rodas will tell her story to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement hearing titled “The Biden Border Crisis: Exploitation of Unaccompanied Alien Children.” Rodas served as a federal employee for 20 years, with 17 years in the Inspector General community.

In 2021, Rodas voluntarily deployed to the Emergency Intake Center in Pomona, California, to assist with the surge of unaccompanied children crossing the southern border.

“When I stepped on the plane from Washington, D.C., to ultimately be deployed to Pomona, I thought that I was helping reunite children with their families. I went in support of the Biden administration, I answered their urgent call to help with the border crisis,” Rodas told the DCNF.

Federal authorities at the southern border have seen a surge in migrant children crossing without any adults. In fiscal year 2022, Border Patrol agents recorded roughly 150,000 encounters of unaccompanied child migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data.

The children are quickly placed in the care of HHS under its office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), where they’re released to sponsors. Rodas said HHS typically released children within 10 to 14 days of arrival to an intake center.

“But no reasonable person could sit back and watch children be trafficked, no reasonable person could sit back and say, ‘I’m going to be OK with children being raped, children being in these horrible working conditions.’ I did not know one child had ever been trafficked through the program. I now know that this has been going on for a decade,” Rodas said.

https://dailycaller.com/2023/04/26/exclusive-whistleblower-reveals-law-enforcement-vetting-sponsors-child-migrants/

ABC employees ‘rewarded’ for ‘left-wing bias’ through double-digit pay rise, says Sophie Elsworth

ABC staff are being “rewarded” for their “left-wing bias” with an 11 per cent pay rise, says media insider Sophie Elsworth.

A media insider has claimed the ABC has rewarded its staff for their unobjective reporting through a double-digit pay rise.

The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance on Wednesday morning confirmed thousands of ABC employees will be awarded an 11 per cent pay increase and $1,500 bonuses.

They will also receive an audit of gender, racial and regional pay gaps and improved access to pay progression.

The new enterprise agreement was passed in a staff vote with 94.4 per cent accepting the revised pay, ending months of negotiations for wage increases and working conditions.

The Australian’s Media Writer Sophie Elsworth told Sky News Australia that the broadcaster's employees will receive "a bucket of cash".

“Every ABC employee is about to have a bucket of cash dropped into their wallets while the rest of many media employees are battling with their commercial viability,” she told Andrew Bolt on Wednesday night.

"But over at the ABC it’s happy days, pay rises coming their way."

Ms Elsworth claimed that staff over at the government-owned broadcaster were being “rewarded”, despite plummeting ratings and “left-wing bias”.

“(Ratings) doesn’t really matter, we had a story in The Australian this week that there’s an external group basically come in hired to come into the ABC to look at why their radio ratings are in freefall," she said.

“Left-wing bias is, I would argue, greater than ever at the ABC, they’re being rewarded for that."

In relation to bias that "plagued" the ABC, Ms Elsworth questioned Q+A presenter Stan Grant’s recent comments against his employer.

Mr Grant made headlines this week when he spoke about the “visceral anger” he felt following the ABC’s “obsequious” coverage of Queen Elizabeth’s death, detailing the crown represented “deep and ongoing suffering” for First Nations people.

“I felt in my own organisation a sense of betrayal,” he said on ABC Breakfast on Monday.

https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/abc-employees-rewarded-for-leftwing-bias-through-doubledigit-pay-rise-says-sophie-elsworth/news-story/aaca77ae77231824b2dbce3393539816

Hmmm sky news goes after Aus state media - pot and kettle are fighting

China not to observe Ukrainian crisis quietly — Xi Jinping

The Chinese leader pointed out that Beijing "has no intention to benefit" from the Ukrainian crisis in any way

Chinese authorities have no intention to quietly observe the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis, but at the same time will not fuel the flame, Chinese leader Xi Jinping said during a phone call with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky Wednesday.

"China is a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a responsible power," Xi Jinping said, according to CCTV. "We will not observe the ongoing fire quietly, and we will not fuel the flames."

The Chinese leader pointed out that Beijing "has no intention to benefit" from the Ukrainian crisis in any way.

https://tass.com/world/1610043

Nikki Haley Hits DeSantis, Invites Disney to South Carolina: ‘We’re Not Sanctimonious’

Republican presidential candidate and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley took a jab at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday amid the governor’s ongoing battle with Disney.

“@Disney, my home state will happily accept your 70,000+ jobs if you want to leave Florida,” she wrote on social media.

“We’ve got great weather, great people, and it’s always a great day in South Carolina! SC’s not woke, but we’re not sanctimonious about it either,” she said, harkening to former President Donald Trump’s nickname for the Florida governor — “Ron DeSanctimonious.”

Her cheeky remark follows news of Disney escalating the ongoing war with the DeSantis administration, filing a lawsuit in federal court Wednesday in which the supposedly family-friendly company accuses the DeSantis administration of waging a “targeted campaign of government retaliation.”

The battle intensified last year after the Florida legislature passed and DeSantis signed the Parental Rights in Education bill into law. The law, in part, prevents classroom discussions on sexual orientation and gender identity for children in kindergarten through third grade. At the time, left-wing activists falsely labeled the measure “Don’t Say Gay,” even though a particular word or phrase is not mentioned nor banned in the actual text of the legislation.

Disney, as a result, went full groomer, listing defeat of the law as a central tenet of the company’s overall goal.

“Our goal as a company is for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts, and we remain committed to supporting the national and state organizations working to achieve that,” it wrote at the time.

“We are dedicated to standing up for the rights and safety of LGBTQ+ members of the Disney family, as well as the LGBTQ+ community in Florida and across the country,” Disney added:

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/04/26/nikki-haley-hits-desantis-invites-disney-to-south-carolina-were-not-sanctimonious/

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/04/26/nikki-haley-hits-desantis-invites-disney-to-south-carolina-were-not-sanctimonious/

Rapper Found Guilty in Multi-Million Dollar Political Conspiracy Trial

On Wednesday, rapper/musician Prakazrel “Pras” Michel, of hip hop group the Fugees , has been found guilty in a political conspiracy trial.

Michel was accused of funneling money from a Malaysian financer through straw donors to Barack Obama in 2012. He was also accused of trying to quash an investigation into the activities by the Justice Department.

The Associated Press reports:

A jury in Washington, D.C., federal court found him guilty of all 10 counts, including conspiracy and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government.

The defense argued the Grammy-winning rapper from the 1990s hip-hop group the Fugees simply wanted to make money and got bad legal advice as he reinvented himself in the world of politics.

Michel declined to comment after the verdict, but his attorney said he’s “extremely disappointed” in the outcome of the case and plans to appeal.

“This is not over,” attorney David Kenner said. “I remain very, very confident we will ultimately prevail.”

Michel first met Malaysian financer Low Taek Jho in 2006, when the businessman usually known as Jho Low was dropping huge sums of money and hobnobbing with the likes of Paris Hilton. Low helped finance Hollywood films, including “The Wolf of Wall Street.” DiCaprio testified Low had appeared to him as a legitimate businessman and had mentioned wanting to donate to Obama’s campaign.

The Gateway Pundit has previously reported on the vast far-left network of donation harvesters that James O’Keefe discussed in a recent video.

Read: Why Central Banks Are Buying All The Gold They Can

The information was released by Chris Gleason and first published at The Gateway Pundit in December 2022. Gleason found a massive number of “Campaign Finance Mules” making hundreds, even thousands of donations per year.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/rapper-found-guilty-in-multi-million-dollar-political-conspiracy-trial/